Sep 21, 2017

The Frisco ISD Partners in Education (PIE) program has successfully taken root between school partner Mustang Creek Estates, a residential assisted living community, and Tadlock Elementary School.

This year, Mustang Creek is providing raised planters and a variety of flowers to bring color to the entry and exit at Tadlock. The donation was more than a simple task of writing a check. Residents traveled to the campus in September in their familiar maroon and white bus to oversee the students work and help with the planting.

“Anything I plant grows,” boasted Lupe, a Mustang Creek resident who says she learned about plants and gardening as a young child. “I have a green thumb,” she boasted to students. Some students had never heard the phrase, so she pulled off her gardening glove and showed them her healthy but experienced gardening thumb – explaining to them about the meaning of the phrase.

The partnership encourages the residents to mingle and talk with students – some of whom have no local grandparents.

Mustang Creek employees specifically look for ways they can collaborate with Tadlock and projects with which their residents can engage with students. The partnership is very successful and residents visit several times during the school year. Keokuk Domingo, a new Mustang Creek employee, was full of praise for the Tadlock students. “They are all so respectful and caring,” she said, “They’ve held doors and helped people. You don’t always see that.”

Jenna Benabe, Community Outreach Liaison for FISD’s Partners in Education program, is very happy to see the partnership between Tadlock and Mustang Creek continues to grow. “I would love to connect other groups with some of our campuses. The Mustang Creek and Tadlock Elementary partnership is an example of how generations can connect and share with each other,” she said.

Please contact her at benabej@friscoisd.org if you are part of an organization looking to partner with Frisco ISD.